Headset roller bearings. Anybody know anything about these things ?

[Cyclopathic]

Just took a headset apart to find roller bearings mounted in a flexible bevelled housing. Frankly I'm not impressed as they are more fiddly with more components necessary to make them work properly.
I just wondered if there was anything that I ought to know about them before cleaning, greasing and replacing takes place.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Headsets usually have 'roller' bearings - can you be a bit more specific? Some are spherical, some are tapered, some are needle roller, some are cartridge - all are rollers though....

 

[accountantpete]

You normally only get 3 types - Loose bearings, caged bearings(plastic or metal cage with replaceable ball bearings) or cartridge (sealed) bearings.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Headsets usually have 'roller' bearings - can you be a bit more specific? Some are spherical, some are tapered, some are needle roller, some are cartridge - all are rollers though....

The convention seems to be that cylindrical bearings are called "roller bearings" and spherical bearings are referred to as "ball bearings". Yes they do all roll but they are not all commonly called roller bearings. The terms "roller" and "ball" are used specifically to differentiate between the two sorts of bearings on the various sites I Googled for "roller bearing headset" and I think in the wider engineering world.

These look about identical to the ones I have encountered which is about as specific as I can get.
Having never encountered them before I simply wondered if anyone had some first hand knowledge of them and knew of anything to watch out for when servicing them. Other peoples experience has saved me a lot of trouble in the past.

 

[Cyclopathic]

You normally only get 3 types - Loose bearings, caged bearings(plastic or metal cage with replaceable ball bearings) or cartridge (sealed) bearings.

Usually yes but sometimes it seems these roller bearings are used, which themselves come in a variety of types and cages, but the ones pictured above are the ones I've got.

 

[accountantpete]

That is an old and pretty rare Stronglight headset - google Stronglight roller or needle bearings.

I'd just grease and put back and hope nothing breaks!

 

[Cyclopathic]

That is an old and pretty rare Stronglight headset - google Stronglight roller or needle bearings.

I'd just grease and put back and hope nothing breaks!

That's what I've done now. Cleaned it very carefully because I thought the bearings would drop out of the flimsy, flexible mounting at any stage, and then re-greased and replaced. Carefully.
Stronglight makes sense as the crank set is definitely that and looking at the headset outer it looks like there might have been Stronglight written there once but has now faded.
I have to say I'm not keen on this system so far. I read that they don't tend to be as free turning as a ball bearinged headset and this does seem to be so. And they're more fiddly. Any road, thanks for the interest and comments.